UCLA Football Offers Nebraska Transfer WR Decoldest Crawford

The NIL star entered the portal after redshirting his freshman year and now has interest from four Power Five programs, including the Bruins.

The Bruins are officially going after one of the biggest and most memorable names on the market.

Former Nebraska wide receiver Decoldest Crawford picked up an offer from UCLA football, he announced Wednesday on Twitter. Crawford, who announced he would be entering the transfer portal Dec. 2 after one year with the Cornhuskers, has four years of eligibility remaining.

Crawford has also received offers from Louisiana-Monroe, Grambling, Southern, Norfolk State, Syracuse, South Alabama, Pittsburgh, Washington State and Vanderbilt since the portal officially opened to non-graduates on Monday.

Coming out of Green Oaks High School (LA) in 2022, Crawford was pegged as a three-star recruit in the 247Sports Composite. He was ranked as a top-500 player in his class and the No. 69 receiver in the nation. Crawford was once an LSU commit, but he reopened his recruitment after the Tigers made a coaching change, and he wound up picking Nebraska over Auburn, Texas and Florida a few months later.

Crawford made headlines over the summer when he inked a fitting name, image and likeness deal with a local HVAC company. That move set Crawford up as one of the top young players to watch this year, not only on the NIL stage, but on the field as well.

Despite the preseason hype, Crawford never saw the field in 2022. The 6-foot, 180-pound wideout suffered a knee injury in fall camp that ultimately cost him the entire season.

Nebraska fired coach Scott Frost in September, and wide receivers coach Mickey Joseph took over as interim coach for the remainder of the year. Joseph was the wide receivers coach at LSU from 2017 to 2021, earning Crawford's commitment while he was in Baton Rouge before eventually bringing Crawford along with him to Lincoln.

Former Baylor and Carolina Panthers coach Matt Rhule signed on to be the program's next head coach on Nov. 27, though, while Joseph was placed on administrative leave on Nov. 30 after he was arrested for domestic violence.

UCLA is losing top receiver Jake Bobo to graduation this offseason, and other go-to options like Kazmeir Allen and Kam Brown could opt to turn pro themselves.

The Bruins do have two receivers coming in as part of their 2023 recruiting class – Mater Dei Catholic (CA) four-star Jeremiah McClure and Norco High School (CA) four-star Grant Gray – as well as a pair of 2022 recruits who redshirted this season – St. Mary's High School (CA) four-star Jadyn Marshall and San Juan Hills High School (CA) three-star Braden Pegan.

Crawford is the first transfer wideout coach Chip Kelly and wide receivers coach Jerry Neuheisel have offered this cycle, and they have brought in a total of four receivers via the transfer portal over the last three offseasons.

Click here to check out All Bruins' 2023 transfer portal tracker

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PHOTO COURTESY OF DECOLDEST CRAWFORD/INSTAGRAM